GOVERNMENT: Low-Priced Monopoly

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. of America, largest U.S. retail food
chain, is a monopoly. So a Federal judge in Danville, Ill. decided last
week: after 89 days in court listening to 200 witnesses, 30,000 pages
of testimony, and inspecting 5.000 documentary exhibits. In his 117-page
decision, Judge Walter C. Lindley said: A. & P. was guilty of conspiring
"to monopolize a substantial part" of the country's food business.
Also guilty: twelve A. & P. subsidiaries and 16 officers, including
President John A. Hartford and his brother, Board Chairman George Hartford.